1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to enterprise systems and more specifically to applying hot fixes for metadata customizing user interactions based on a software program deployed in multiple versions.
2. Related Art
There are several software programs, which are primarily intended to support user interactions. For example, a point-of-sale (POS) program executing at a retail store may facilitate a cashier (i.e., a person at the POS) to complete a sales transaction by displaying (or in general providing) outputs and receiving appropriate inputs from the cashier. Multiple versions of a software program may be available, and different versions may be deployed at different retail stores. All versions of the same software program implement substantially the same broad functionality, but versions differ in providing enhancements, etc., as is well known in the relevant arts.
Metadata is often used to customize user interactions provided by software programs. Such customizations may be performed, for example, as being necessitated by the requirements of the corresponding usage environment. As an illustration, a software vendor may implement a software program with a generic sequence of user interactions (process flow) for a chain of retail stores and each retail store may further customize the generic process flow as suited for its environment. The customizations are enabled by making corresponding changes to metadata provided external to the software program, such that the programming instructions of the software program are not required to be modified at least for simple customizations.
Hot fixes are often provided by software vendors, for resolving issues observed in process flows. Each hot fix contains modified portions (of the metadata) that have to be applied to replace the corresponding previous portions of the metadata. Post-application, the modified metadata generally operates to resolve an issue previously observed. Hot fixes are normally received in small numbers together targeted towards a small set of issues that are of immediate interest.
Challenges are presented in applying hot fixes to different versions of a software program. A vendor of a software program may generate and make available hot fixes for a specific (typically latest) version and allow the administrators at each retail store to apply hot fixes that are relevant to the version of the software program executing in their retail store. For this reason, as well as requirements that may vary across stores, each administrator may choose different sets of hot fixes at corresponding store, thereby adding to the complexity of applying hot fixes received in subsequent batches.
It is generally desirable that the task of applying hot fixes be simplified, in particular, for metadata customizing user interactions based on a software program deployed in multiple versions.
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